Abita Bourbon Street Barrel Aged Biere De Mars (6/10)

Lately, I've been going through my old beer review notes and trying to get everything available here on the site for my readers.  One thing that's really disappointed me (in myself, mostly) is that I've had a tough time getting the reviews for certain beers online before those beers disappear from sale.  Sadly, this review is one of those.  I post the reviews anyway, as a thank you to the brewers for producing these interesting beers, and as a way for other craft beer lovers to get some idea what the beer was like - should it ever reappear at your favorite store or bar.

Abita Brewing Co. is located about 30 miles away from New Orleans, Louisiana.  Bourbon Street Barrel Aged Biere De Mars is a Biere De Garde style ale, typically brewed in March (hence the Mars name).  It's aged in bourbon barrels, but I can't find much information about the barrels used.

The Biere De Garde style in the BJCP guidelines has an aroma with a prominent malty sweetness with a complex toasty character.  Esters are moderate to low, and there is little or no hop aroma.  There's also a musty element common in commercially brewed versions.  The guidelines state that the flavor has a medium to high malt flavor with a toasty toffee or caramel sweetness.  Alcohol flavors are low to moderate.  Hop bitterness is medium to low, as this is a beer that should be balanced toward malt.

Abita's version pours a hazy light brown with minimal head.

The aroma is buttery, oaky, and only slightly malty.  

The flavor starts malty, then turns oaky and a little buttery.  There is a lingering bitterness, probably from hops, and a cola-like malt character.  As much as I like the Biere De Garde and Biere De Mars styles in general, I don't care much for this example of it.  It's rated at 9% alcohol, and 21 IBUs of bitterness.  It seemed a bit more bitter than that.

All things considered, this is a beer I should love.  I like barrel aged beers.  I like Biere De Mars style in general.  Abita makes some nice beers.  It's got all the right elements, but somehow it just doesn't work for me.  I'm giving it a 6 out of 10.  Beer Advocate reviewers gave it an 89 or good rating.  Rate Beer reviewers come closer to my own rating, giving it a 3.22 out of 5 on average, or 6.4 out of 10.

This is supposedly a one-time limited edition beer.  If you want to see whether it's available near you today, check this link to locations selling it on BeerMenus.com.

Brasserie d'Achouffe La Chouffe Blonde Ale (8/10)

The Brasserie d Achouffe is located in Achouffe, Belgium.  They produce a range of several beers, including La Chouffe.  La Chouffe is an unfiltered Belgian Blonde Ale which "is refermented both in the bottle and in barrels" and is described as "pleasantly fruity, spiced with coriander and tinged with hops."

The beer pours an almost coppery amber color with a finger thick white head that lasts a little while before disappearing, leaving behind a significant amount of thick white lacing as you can see in the photo at the left.

The aroma mixes the typical Belgian fruit and spice elements.

The flavor starts malty and a little sweet, with mild fruit and spice notes as in the aroma.  I get hints of orange, cinnamon, and coriander.  The finish is bitter and lingering, and is the only thing about the beer I dislike.  The flavor hides the fact that this is a relatively strong beer (8% alcohol by volume).

Beer Advocate gives La Chouffe a 99 or "world-class" rating.  Rate Beer gives it a 98 out of 100.  I really liked the beer, but I can't justify a 9 or 10 rating because of that unpleasantly bitter finish.  I'm rating it an 8 out of 10, but it's probably more like an 8.5.

You can find Achouffe products around town at a number of retailers and draft beer sellers.  Here's a link to the BeerMenus.com list of nearby locations which have it available.

Rivertown Brewery - Cincinnati, Ohio

Rivertown Brewery Tapoom Beer List and Taps

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit and tour the Rivertown Brewery in Cincinnati.  The brewery is located in an industrial complex in the Lockland area.  It features a taproom with vintage arcade games, plenty of seating, a small gift shop area (several shelves), a refrigerated section featuring Rivertown's beers and soft drinks, televisions, and a bar where you can sample the company's beers.  Unfortunately, at the time of our visit very few of the beers were still in stock.

Adam, our tour guide and brewmaster, began his brewing career as a homebrewer.  He walked us through the entire brewing process.  He began by showing us samples of grain and hops pellets used in some of Rivertown's beers.   We were invited to chew on some of the grains to get an idea what they contributed to the beer's flavor.  Pale Malt has a slightly sweet taste to it.  Honey Malt is a bit sweeter and tastes a little like honey.

Citra Hops Pellets, Honey Malt, and 2-Row Pale Malt Samples

Adam talked about how a lot of brew day work involves lugging 50-pound sacks of grain around the brewery - an area which often reaches temperatures over 100 degrees during the summer months.  To help reduce some of this heavy lifting, they installed a grain silo capable of holding 6,000 pounds of the pale malt they use.  Since pale malt represents most of the grain used in a typical beer, this has cut down significantly on the lifting they've had to do.

Rivertown's Grain Silo

Pale malt flows from the silo through tubes into the mill, where it's crushed before moving on to the mash tun.

Inside the white room here is the grain mill, which takes in grain
from the silo before passing it on to the mash tun

After being crushed, the grain flows on to the mash tun.

Brewmaster Adam showing the mash tun and explaining the
mashing, hot liquor, and vorlauf parts of brewing

In the mash tun, the grain is mixed with water and the sugars are extracted from it.  Water from the mash tun is circulated from the bottom of the mash tun back through the top.  This allows the grain to act as a kind of filter to clarify the beer a bit.  Once the mash is boiling, hops are added at appropriate times to provide bitterness, flavor, and aroma to the beer (which is called a wort at this point).

The wort is pumped through a heat exchanger which uses cold water and glycol to quickly lower the temperature of the wort from boiling (212 degrees) to a temperature suitable for yeast (typically around 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit).  The wort is then pumped into fermenters.

One of Rivertown's fermenters, in which wort is turned into beer by yeast

In the fermenter, the wort is mixed with yeast.  The yeast consumes sugar in the wort and releases carbon dioxide and alcohol.  Some varieties of yeast also produce flavor compounds which give the beer's flavor more complexity.  The size of Rivertown's fermenters require about $600 worth of yeast for a batch.

When the fermentation is finished, the fermenter is chilled to cause the yeast to drop out of the beer into the bottom of the fermenter.  The yeast is then recovered by the brewmasters and re-used up to twelve times as a cost-saving measure.  A clarifying agent known as biofine is added to further clarify the beer.  The beer is then pumped into brite tanks.

Brite tanks, where beer is further clarified and carbonated before
being kegged or bottled

After the beer is moved to the brite tanks, it is further clarified and carbon dioxide gas added to it.  From here, the majority of the beer is packaged into kegs.  A smaller percentage is bottled.  The brewery has an automated bottling line in it.

The bottling line, in which Rivertown's beer is bottled, capped, and labeled.
Beer comes in from the left side of the photo, circles around, and the
bottles are capped in the machines on the right.

The labeling end of the line for Rivertown bottled beers

Rivertown is one of a few breweries that is developing a reputation for sour beers  They're also developing a variety of barrel aged beers.

Adam showing the barrel and sour beer brewing equipment

Adam showed us the equipment Rivertown is using to brew sour ales.  He mentioned that it's important then they bottle their sour beers to remove and replace all the rubber components in their bottling line.  Sour beers include bacteria that can infect rubber and taint beers bottled in the same equipment.  Cleaning the stainless steel components and replacing the rubber ones allows Rivertown to do both regular and sour beers.

Another element of Rivertown's sour brewing apparatus

Adam also showed us their chill room, where beers can be kept at refrigerator-like temperatures.

The Chill Room

The tour finishes back at the taproom, where you have the opportunity try Rivertown's beers.

Fans of Rivertown's products will enjoy this "backstage" look at how they're made.  As a home brewer, I enjoyed seeing how Rivertown's products are made.

50 West Eleanor Belgian Blonde Ale (6/10)

The 50 West Brewing Company is located in Cincinnati.  They pride themselves on brewing small batches and doing them well.  Eleanor is a "Belgo-American Blonde Ale" named after their trademark VW bus.  The 50 West web site describes Eleanor as "a Blonde Ale that rides a wave of fruity hops and Ardennes yeast to deliver a mildly spiced and juicy fruit flavor."

The beer pours a slightly hazy pale gold with a thick white head that dissipates relatively slowly. 

Eleanor's aroma is malty and hoppy with a slight hint of Belgian fruit. 

The flavor starts with a hint of sweet malt and fruit, then quickly gives way to hops. Hops bitterness dominates the middle and finish. The bitterness lingers quite a while after you finish sipping.

Beer Advocate doesn't have enough individual ratings to give an overall rating for this beer yet.  The ratings that are present at this time would rank it somewhere in the 7 out of 10 range.  Rate Beer is in the same situation, but what they have works out to around 7.2 out of 10.  I guess I'm a little harder on it than they are, perhaps because I like Belgian style beers but dislike hoppy ones.  I'm rating it 6 out of 10 overall.  That's actually high for me when it comes to a hoppier beer, so it's fair to say I liked this more than many "American" style beers.

When I sampled this beer, it was on tap at The Daily Growler.  It's long since left there, but may come back. You might also find it at other local establishments through that BeerMenus.com link or at the brewery's location in Cincinnati.  

The beer is 6% alcohol by volume and is rated at 20 IBUs, though it tastes quite a bit higher than that.

Argus Rosie Cheeks Saison (7/10)

Argus Brewery of Chicago produces Rosie Cheeks Saison. This Saison ale is brewed with "rose hips to impart a slightly tart and jammy flavor that pairs nicely with the farmhouse and clove characters found in our saison yeast."

I received this beer as part of the August 2015 shipment from the Rare Beer Club.

The beer pours a pinkish gold color with thin white head.

The aroma is floral, with some malt and the usual Saison funk elements.

The flavor starts malty, mildly sweet, slightly fruity, slightly tart, and mildly bitter.  It's an interesting, complex, and somewhat bold flavor.

Beer Advocate only has a couple of reviews for it, which work out to approximately 7 out of 10.  RateBeer is the same.  I have to agree with those other reviewers.  If it came down to this beer or one of the macro brews, I'd probably fill my glass with this one.  On the other hand, there are quite a few beers I like more than this one.

Right now, as far as I know, this beer isn't available for purchase in Ohio.  The only way you could get it would be on a trip to Argus Brewery in Chicago or to order it from the Rare Beer Club.

5 Rabbit Cerveceria Ponche Mexican Barleywine (8/10)

5 Rabbit Cerveceria is located in Bedford Park, Illinois.  The brewers named it after a deity in Aztec mythology.  Their beers embody flavors and elements from Latin culture.  Ponche is a barleywine ale inspired by the Mexican "ponche" drink, a punch consumed during the Christmas season.  It's brewed with muscat grapes, concord grapes, apple juice, orange peel, Mexican cinnamon, cassia buds, date syrup, and cloves.

Ponche pours a dark mahogany with virtually no head. That's not surprising, since high-alcohol beers tend not to be able to retain a head for very long, and this beer clocks in at 12% alcohol by volume.

The aroma is fruity with a touch of cinnamon. It's a very pleasing aroma and does bring to mind a Christmas punch.

The flavor is sweet, malty, and complex. I get grape, cinnamon, a hint of clove, and dark fruit. Although apple juice is included in the mix, I don't taste that. All in all, it's a delicious beer and I hope 5 Rabbit keeps making it.

I tried this particular beer at The Daily Growler in Upper Arlington when it was available last year.  As of this writing, I'm not aware of anywhere that you can currently purchase it, which is unfortunate.  This is a beer I would happily drink year-round, or add to my regular Christmas beer purchase rotation.

Rate Beer gave Ponche a 94 overall.  Beer Advocate gives it an 87 or "very good" rating.  I really liked it, and had a hard time deciding on a rating.  In the end, I looked at other beers I'd rated an 8, 9, or 10 and compared this to them.  The 9's and 10's were beers I enjoyed at least a little tiny bit more, so I decided to rate Ponche an 8 out of 10.  But it's possible that this could easily move upward if and when I get to sample it again.

The 5 Rabbit web site doesn't list Ponche among its current products.  Perhaps because they've discontinued it, or perhaps because they only list it when it's available seasonally.  I wrote to them to ask about this, but haven't heard back yet.